Keep in mind that these are consoles, not your typical home computer. That is, by destroying them, you only lose the relatively cheap mass-produced components used to make them. The actual information is likely stored on a central mainframe.
Really, the loss here is the loss of an access point. If tampering is detected, then in the eyes of the designer, that likely means that the access point has been compromised. Therefore, it gets destroyed.
As for human harm, remember that when hacking into a computer, you’re specifically trying to bypass its security features. Your typical worker would have access and thus would never have any real reason to do this - thus, if tampering is detected, it can be reasonably assumed that whoever is doing it is a Chinese/Russian spy or somebody else. If the system malfunctions and somehow injures somebody, propaganda and the political atmosphere at the time has that covered. Lethal security measures killed somebody? With the constant threat of Chinese invasion, unfortunate but necessary: this man died in the line of duty! Worker’s unions protesting? A communist plot from Russia meant to destabilize our capitalist society! The US government at the time of the Cataclysm is pretty well-known for being pretty over-the-top when it comes to defending against the Chinese/Russian threat, after all - civilians are encouraged to arm up to defend against an invasion, and can buy automatic weapons and explosives to do so, IIRC.
